District Governor Kate Sims
The Role of the District Governor
District Governor Kate Sims said the job of district governor doesn't come with a package of instructions about what to do during the year as governor, even though there are two years to plan in advance for the DG year. The district now has 59 clubs, but a number of those clubs are struggling, and it seemed to Kate that there needed to be some overall plan to encourage greater engagement throughout the district. District 7890 is alone in this concern. Rotary International is afraid Rotary might be the next Kodak - unwilling or unable to realize that the future is not a mere continuation of the present. There have been significant changes in the culture which Rotary must understand and adapt to. Our district is losing members faster than any other district in New England. So what do we do?
Kate met with past district governors to develop a five-year strategy. They felt that there needed to be a district-wide project to engage our clubs The group felt that addressing the opioid crisis was an important effort and one that should involve all the clubs, because all of us know others or are ourselves affected by this crisis. Kate is an RN who has worked in administrative areas of nursing for many years, so she has been involved with the problems personally and professionally. She told us that in 2016 46,000 people in the US died of drug overdoses. In 2017 that number had grown to 72,000. The average of these deaths is 41, because so many of them begin with prescription drugs.
Kate had worked with a program with the chief of police in Manchester to work with mothers who give birth to babies born with fetal alcohol or narcotic issues. This is critical, because one in five infants in this country has been adversely affected by fetal alcohol problems. No expectant mother should drink a drop during pregnancy, because there are so many ways the fetus can be affected. The progam also involved DCF and DMHS to work with them to help the moms be better. This let mothers stay with their infants and to have a chance to keep the infants rather than to be separated at birth. A group from this area went to South Africa to see what they were doing and found out that they were ahead of us in dealing with this issue.
However the district efforts to address the drug crisis in our area develop, the task force believed the key is to work on behavioral change. Stay tuned for opportunities to help with this effort.
Other ways to make changes to Rotary to recognize the differences in the culture include working to develop Rotoract groups for young people 18-30. It's clear that they aren't interested in weekly meetings just to get together they want to do things to make the community and the world better.
Kate talked some about the changes to the district conference which will be on May 3 and 4 in Danvers, MA. There will be a dinner dance with no speaker. On the second day there will be a brunch at which Interact groups will talk about what they are doing. The hotel where the conference is being held has a water park and is a good place for the whole family to enjoy. The emphasis is on enjoyment, as well as making the event more affordable for Rotarians.
Thanks, Kate, for your leadership!
.JPG)
